


Chicken Pox and Dinosaurs

by loveneverfails



Category: Big Bang Theory
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-26
Updated: 2011-05-26
Packaged: 2017-10-19 19:26:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/204405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveneverfails/pseuds/loveneverfails
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU: Little Shelly Cooper has the chicken pox.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chicken Pox and Dinosaurs

A seven year old Sheldon Lee Cooper is stuck in bed on a Saturday morning with a bad case of the chicken pox. He contracted them precisely four days ago from the evil miscreant Billy Tucker who held him down on the playground last week and breathed on him. To make matters worse, Missy's been teasing him all day long, threatening him with her pink magic marker and a game of connect the dots. But she'd left with their mother over an hour ago to go dress shopping - an excuse he knew his mother was just using to give Sheldon some relief from his tormenting twin's evil plan to make him look like a human connect the dot book - and Sheldon was now left in the peace and quiet. He could hear the faint sound of the television downstairs - his father was watching another football game, he could tell by the soft cheers from the stadium crowd - and he's just about to fade off into the land of dreams where he'll have some relief from the annoying itching all over his body when he hears the doorbell ring. His eyes pop open and he holds his breath, listening, waiting. He can hear the soft murmur of voices, then the creaking of the old stairs as small feet pitter patter up it.

Precisely thirty seconds later, his bedroom door creaks open and small blonde pigtails peek through. He recognizes the blue eyes immediately and he frowns despite almost being pleased to see someone. Even Penny, his sister's friend from next door. "What do you want, Penny?" he says in a rather annoyed tone. "Missy's not here and if you plan on taking advantage of my illness to do evil, I'd rather you not. My poor immune system is prohibiting me from even having the strength to move and it wouldn't be much of a fair fight." Penny blinks once, then again, and then she begins to giggle as her face scrunches up. "You sure do talk funny, Shelly." She can hear his exasperated sigh all the way from the doorway, but she doesn't let it bother her. She's used to Sheldon's annoyed looks and his incapability to be nice from her many sleepovers with Missy. So instead of letting him get her down or deter her from her work, she skips to his bedside and stands there smiling, which only seems to cause Sheldon more agitation. "You're in my room, Penny," he says, growing annoyed. "No one's allowed in my room without express written permission, except for my mother, my father, and Memaw." She can tell she's causing him distress by the way his left eye is twitching, but she knows what she's brought him will make up for it. So she proudly displays her Hello Kitty thermos, filled with warm chicken noodle soup, and a bag filled with other goodies. "When I had the chicken pox, I wasn't allowed to go out and play," she says matter of factly as she begins to lay out the bag's contents on Sheldon's lap. "It sucked, so I thought I'd help you kill the time until you can come out and play again!" She shrugs at that, like it's no big deal, and holds up a coloring book with dinosaurs on it. "They didn't have anything Sciencey, so you're stuck with dinosaurs. They're kind of cool, though!" she says with wide eyes before flipping open a page. "Grrrr!" she growls, wiggling the page back and forth in front of Sheldon's annoyed face. "Penny," he sighs, preparing what little strength he has to lecture her. "Dinosaurs did not growl in a girly vo-" he's interrupted from finishing his lecture because Penny's already pulling out crayons and a spoon for Sheldon's soup and he's just thankful enough for the company that he doesn't even protest when Penny sits on the edge of his bed. Too much, at least.

An hour later, they've finished coloring half of the pages in the book - Penny's dinosaurs are various shades of pink and yellow, with polka dots and stripes, while Sheldon's opted for more accurate shades of brown and green and gray. Sheldon's talking less and his eyes are beginning to droop, so Penny offers to leave, but it's Sheldon's warm hand wrapping around her arm that causes her to stay. "What is it, Shelly?" she asks, her big blue eyes looking worried. "Would you," he stops, almost as if he's unsure how to ask for something from someone who's not his mother. "My mother always sings me Soft Kitty when I'm sick," he says simply. Penny's never heard the song before and it takes several long, frustrating minutes of Sheldon's coaching before she catches it on. But she's proud of the fact that she's picked it up this quickly and she sings it softly to him, again and again. Penny doesn't have an all encompassing voice like his mother does (she says Jesus gave it to her so even the devil can hear her sing from the church choir on Sunday morning) but it does make him feel safe. His eyes begin to get heavier when he feels Penny's warm fingers pushing his hair back off of his forehead. He's too tired to complain or to tell her he hates it when people that aren't his mother touch him, so he simply sighs and offers her a worn out, half smile. "Thank you for coming to visit me today, Penny," he says in a peaceful, dreamlike murmur. Penny can't remember little Shelly Cooper _ever_ thanking anyone for _anything_ so she just nods a little before saying, "You're welcome, Shelly. I hope you feel better tomorrow." She stays there for a minute, watching his chest rise and fall with each breath he takes and she smiles to herself, feeling she's done a pretty darn good job playing nurse while Missy was away. "Go away now," he says bluntly, as if he can't understand why this might be considered rude. "I need sleep to help my immune system fight off these pox." And that is the little Shelly Cooper she knows.


End file.
